"Nate" was the standard Japanese Army fighter at the time of Pearl Harbor, though it
was slated to be replaced by the Oscar.
It was the chief fighter in use in China
and Burma early in the war. The
Allies in Burma
initially gave it the code name "Abdul" before it was realized
that this was the same aircraft.

The design came out of a failed bid by Nakajima to fill
an Army requirement in 1934. Nakajima decided to take their data
from the competition and design an advanced monoplane fighter as a
private venture. (There were rumors that the Army tipped the
company off to an upcoming call for designs and provided them with
the specification requirements.) The prototype first flew on 15
October 1936 and did well in competitive Army trials. When the
Japanese Army Air Force found itself lagging behind the Navy at
the start of the "China Incident" in 1937, the opportunity was
taken to put the "Nate" into immediate production. The aircraft
entered combat in March 1938 and quickly won air superiority over
northern China. It did less well at Nomonhan, where it proved
superior to the Russian I-15
but not the I-16.

A peculiarity of the design was that the guns were
mounted in the cockpit floor and fired from beneath the engine.
The Aldis gun sight was awkward to use and hindered the pilot's situational
awareness.

Though possibly the most maneuverable fighter ever
built, "Nate" was not particularly fast, was grossly undergunned,
and was as fragile as most other Japanese fighters. It was
particularly prone to vibration, engine stalling, and even
breaking up if dove too steeply for too long. This made it
relatively easy prey for Chennault’sFlying Tigers,
who flew P-40Es and had
been trained in hit-and-run
tactics. The aircraft was relegated to second-line and training
duty as quickly as it could be replaced by better designs, such as
the Ki-43 "Oscar", but production
continued in Manchuria for
the puppet
air force. Second-line Nates of 5
Air Regiment were the chief air defense against the Doolittle raid, but were
unable to inflict significant damage on the raiders.